World Cup 2002 - Qualification

Three teams qualify from CONCACAF - the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football.

The Guyana Football Association was suspended by FIFA. As long as the suspension remained in force, Guyana would be prohibited from taking part in the preliminary competition for the 2002 World Cup Finals.

CONCACAF Qualifying

The qualification process for CONCACAF started with a series of regional preliminaries and a lot of pot luck.

6 teams in the Central America Zone.

25 teams in the Caribbean Zone; to include Bahamas, Bermuda and Canada.

Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico, and United States received what amounted to a bye; having qualified for the previous three World Cups.

Preliminary Phase

Central American Zone

Central America A El Salvador Guatemala Belize

Central America B Panama Honduras Nicaragua

The winners of each group (El Salvador and Panama) qualified for part 2 of the qualification process, termed the semi-finals, while the two runners-up entered the Caribbean Zone's qualification in the 4th Round - called the Interzone.

Caribbean Zone

Three groups of eight, played a cup knockout to advance.

Barbados beat Cuba on penalties.

St Vincent beat Antigua 5:2 on aggregate.

Trinidad & Tobago beat Haiti 4:2 on aggregate.

The 3 Caribbean Zone winners joined the winners of the two Central America groups and moved a step nearer to their goal, while the losers entered the Interzone challenge.

Interzone #1
Canada (bye) vs Loser of Caribbean 1 (Cuba)
Canada won (1:0) on aggregate.

Interzone #2
Runner-up of Central America A  vs. Loser Caribbean 2
Guatemala beat Antigua and Barbuda (9:1) on aggregate.

Interzone #3
Runner-up of Central America B  vs. Loser Caribbean 3
Honduras beat Haiti (7:1) on aggregate.

Semi-Final Phase

Eight teams then had the chance to compete against Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico, and United States in the semi-final phase.

Costa Rica was not one of the seeded teams in the three groups.

Group C	Group D	Group E
Mexico	Jamaica	USA
C2	D2	E2
C3	D3	E3
C4	D4	E4

Teams were pulled from Pot E first, with each one going into the second position in Groups C, D and E. Then Pots F and G, filling the third and fourth positions.

Pot E	Pot F	Pot G
Costa Rica	Caribbean #1 Barbados	Interzone #1 Canada
1st Group A El Salvador	Caribbean #2 St Vincent	Interzone #2 Guatemala
1st Group B Panama	Caribbean #3 Trinidad	Interzone #3 Honduras

Semi-Final Stage

Group C

	P	W	D	L	F/A	Dif	Pts
Trinidad	6	5	0	1	14/7	+7	15
Mexico	6	4	1	1	17/2	+15	13
Canada	6	1	2	3	1/8	-7	5
Panama	6	0	1	5	1/16	-15	1

Group D

	P	W	D	L	F/A	Dif	Pts
Honduras	6	5	0	1	25/5	+20	15
Jamaica	6	4	0	2	7/4	+3	12
El Salvador	6	3	0	3	13/13	--	9
St. Vincent	6	0	0	6	2/25	-23	0

Group E

	P	W	D	L	F/A	Dif	Pts
United States	6	3	2	1	14/3	+11	11
Costa Rica	6	3	1	2	9/6	+3	10
Guatemala	6	3	1	2	9/6	+3	10
Barbados	6	1	0	5	3/20	-17	3

Play-off for Group E's second place spot.

6th January, 2001 in Miami (USA)
Costa Rica 5 - Guatemala 2

Final Qualification

The winners and runners-up of the three semi-final groups then entered another round robin, home and away.

	P	W	D	L	F/A	Dif	Pts
Costa Rica	10	7	2	1	17/7	+10	23
Mexico	10	5	2	3	16/9	+7	17
United States	10	5	2	3	11/8	+3	17
Honduras	10	4	2	4	17/17	--	14
Jamaica	10	2	2	6	7/14	-7	8
Trinidad	10	1	2	7	5/18	-13	5

The top three qualified for the 2002 World Cup Finals.

Please take a moment to like us on Facebook and share with your friends on social media.

Meta Search: